Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

"Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

mastodon.social

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 178 posts

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#101

Post by chaps »

mulmen wrote: post #73
openrisk wrote: post #69

Q: How many people are using a web browser on a daily basis worldwide as their main window to the collective infosphere? A: Billions. Q: What fraction of the corresponding GDP would it take to fund a serious browser-as-public-good initiative that would develop this technology to its full potential without the perverse constraints of adtech business models? A: 0.0001%? Too small to compute? The idea that critical comm…

> There are more ways to fund things than either adtech or dazed and confused individuals paying/donating directly for software. Like what?

Grants!

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#102

Post by 93po »

Still waiting for a browser that doesn't send a million things to fingerprint me with. Random websites don't need to know the battery level of my device. It shouldn't even be able to know my window size or resolution. It's beyond me that we should provide any information to send back other than our IP address and the resource we want to access. Anything more than that should be allowed on a case-by-case basis, but 99% of websites don't need more.

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#104

Post by CTOSian »

idle76 wrote: post #96

Wierd, I just updated to v128 (been offline a couple of days) on android, and the Settings -> Data Collection -> Marketing wad already off. I already had the usage and studied off, so maybe that's why

I am on 128.0 on android and no such option on settings, but that 'dom.privacy...' flag was 'true'

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#105

Post by galdosdi »

CrendKing wrote: post #72

This gives me impression like what happens to the nuclear weapon proliferation. At beginning, it is an arms race, between US and USSR, between users and advertisers. Either side thinks they can't survive without vanquishing the other. Eventually they realize it is stupid to continue, and reach a point to both step back. I think Mozilla is at the point where they realize it is no longer beneficial to continue the race…

> Either side thinks they can't survive without vanquishing the other.

Except, it actually is not a two way street. It's purely one way. Without users, the content sellers can't survive. But if users stop consuming ads and eliminate content revenue streams, the users will be just fine. So what if TikTok goes out of business or something?

All the failure of online advertising would mean would be regressing to a time when the internet was not very commercialized yet, which was an amazing awesome time when we had pretty much all the positives of today with few of the negatives.

They need us, but we don't need them. Big Content is a parasite.

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#107

Post by throwaway81523 »

doe_eyes wrote: post #100
openrisk wrote: post #69

Q: How many people are using a web browser on a daily basis worldwide as their main window to the collective infosphere? A: Billions. Q: What fraction of the corresponding GDP would it take to fund a serious browser-as-public-good initiative that would develop this technology to its full potential without the perverse constraints of adtech business models? A: 0.0001%? Too small to compute? The idea that critical comm…

The problem isn't building a publicly-funded browser, it's building a publicly-funded browser that's good and that can keep up with the demands of the platform - which means taking risks, also when it comes to security and privacy. A publicly-funded equivalent of MSIE 6, heroically made 100% secure and private, would be a disaster for the web. And that's a pretty likely outcome if it's designed by a government commit…

The "demands of the platform" drive expanding capabilities of the browser, which in turn drive increasing commands of the platform. A vicious spiral. Magically getting everyone to switch to a less powerful browser would necessarily beat back the demands of the platform. That would be a wonderful thing, not a disaster.

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#108

Post by nullc »

Do I understand the feature correctly? Your browser tracks your activity and submits it, non-anonymously to a mozilla operated server where it is vulnerable to lawful or lawless interception or compromise by hackers, and from there they sell anonymized (hopefully) data to advertisers?

Re: "Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you"

#110

Post by lolinder »

CrendKing wrote: post #72

This gives me impression like what happens to the nuclear weapon proliferation. At beginning, it is an arms race, between US and USSR, between users and advertisers. Either side thinks they can't survive without vanquishing the other. Eventually they realize it is stupid to continue, and reach a point to both step back. I think Mozilla is at the point where they realize it is no longer beneficial to continue the race…

> Morally speaking, content creators I consume deserve income from my visit, as long as my privacy is preserved.

For me, tracking is not my primary concern with ads: I use an ad blocker as an accessibility tool to allow me to even exist on the internet at all. I have ADHD. Nearly all content on the internet is flanked by ads that make it impossible for me to actually read or watch it—they're intentionally distracting enough to draw the eye of a neurotypical person, and it's hopeless for me.

I dread a world where even Mozilla embraces advertising and the false idea that the only thing to solve is privacy. Ads are a problem for many, many reasons, and we need to find alternative answers for funding.

Post reply on HN